FOOTBALL fans are being urged to become recycling champions as sales of drink cans and bottles soar during the World Cup.

Vale and Cotswold residents are already among the best at recycling and composting and it is hoped football fever will help it stay at the top of the league.

Cotswold District Council leader Cllr Lynden Stowe said: "The combination of sunshine and soccer means thousands of extra cans and glass and plastic bottles will be sold in the coming weeks.

"We hope fans will give us their support by making sure their empty tins and glass bottles go into our kerbside recycling boxes or local recycling banks. And when they've finished reading the match reports, newspapers and magazines can also go in the boxes.

"While we don't collect plastic bottles from the kerbside, they can be taken to one of our 21 sites across the district."

Thanks to the joint efforts of residents and the council, overall recycling rates in the Cotswold District have reached 37 per cent.

Cllr Stowe said: "This is a tremendous achievement and we'd like to thank everyone who uses our recycling boxes and banks and our green garden waste bins. However, we can still do more and we're urging residents to reduce waste, reuse items and recycle wherever possible."

Mark Edwards, waste management officer at Wychavon District Council said: "We have certainly seen an increase in the recycling of cans and bottles this month and let's hope if England get a good run the trend will continue.

"I think the amount is certainly a measure of the support for England combined with the good weather we have been having too. I urge people not to forget to use their recycling sacks and hope to see the figures rise even after the World Cup has finished."

Recycling in the Cotswolds has been boosted by the introduction of plastic bottle banks, which celebrate their second anniversary this week.

Cllr Mark Tufnell, responsible for development services and environment, said: "In the first two years of the scheme, we have collected 187 tonnes of plastic - that's the equivalent of 3.7 million bottles. It's incredible when you think how little each plastic bottle weighs."